February 10, 2024 - A nice mature bottle of Bandol, red fruits, garrigue, and a hint of liquorice. Mellowed nicely. Tastes fully ready.
August 13, 2023 - Opened up with a neutral nose. Waited about 30-45min after pouring to try. Medium body, smooth drinking, some fruit left but quite sedate in that department. No detectable rough edge as in previous bottles. One dimensional now, with only secondary tastes present - in an elegant way. Not going to get much better IMO. Drink up.
May 21, 2023 - Medium/dark ruby with extensive bricking
Medium plus aroma - primarily secondary/ tertiary at this point - strong old and fresh leather aromas with shoe polish along with garrigue notes with touch of game and black cherry
Medium plus bodied with palate of black fruit - ripe/sweet black cherry and plum
Medium plus well integrated tannins with medium plus acidity and medium plus alcohol
Long palate led by fruit and tannins
This was definitely notable as a warmer climate wine but really surprised me by the aromas, as I found them very unique
This really grew on me with further tasting
Drink now
May 19, 2023 - Mature bouquet with ripe red and dark fruit. Red currant, preserved plum, raisin, tobacco, soil and old leather. Well surrounding structure with plenty of acidity and lively tannins.
May 17, 2023 - Blind tasting
Medium garnet
Aromatics medium +. Leather and shoe shine polish. Black prunes. Dark florals. All quite intense
Palate has a medium + body. Acid medium+. Tannins medium +, almost fine grained. Alcohol medium +. Plums and raisins, quite concentrated
Finish has a medium + length. Balanced
Dry glass notes of mushrooms and leather
I guessed old world, warm climate 2013. Either Italy or Portugal and finally decided blindly on Amarone. The shoe polish really through me off, but concentrated dark fruits and alcohol seemed consistent with warm/ripe southern Europe.
Regardless, unique and atypical which allowed me to keep raising the score from my original 90. I've never had a shoe polish aromatic in a wine before.
Drink now.
January 5, 2023 - Hard to believe, but it’s been eight years since I last tasted a proper bottle of red Tempier (I had a corked one in 2018). I have been drinking tons of Mourvèdre based wines, but not Tempier, as my head kept saying “let them age.” I finally grabbed a bottle of the 2007, and wow was it delicious. Deep red/black fruit, elements of soy, herb and a deep, resonating earthiness. Still has firm back end tannins, but so much material to buffer them that it could be decades before this wine gets fully mature. The savory core hums along for as long as one wants to follow the tune. Classic and compelling.
December 25, 2022 - Decanted for couple of hours as it was still somewhat restrained upon opening. Opened up nicely then with a beautiful nose of ripe berries with red currant. On the palate also ripe red fruit, red currant, some garrigue with notes of tobacco, old leather and forest floor. Very good acidic structure, which indicates there still lies a good future ahead of it. Well balanced, whilst not the most complex wine, it shows some good depth and first and foremost great joy to drink.
April 17, 2022 - At a nice point of mid-maturity. Plummy dark fruit, blueberry, tar, herbs, open aromatically, showing age-appropriate evolution of the fruit. Nicely mellowed palate, dark fruit with a rounded attack, the tannins are partly resolved, showing a mix of silkiness & firmness. The finish has some alcohol & phenolics showing through, though also good heft and structure remains.
Drink or hold. Did best when paired with protein, so it's hearty and not fully resolved. Very good, seems to evolve without becoming truly complex or elegant.
April 3, 2022 - Drank after a 60min slow ox. Slight blue fruit nose. Medium body. Smooth drinking, lots of secondaries on mid palate, with a rough edge that dissipates after another 30-60min. I think this has another 3 years at this plateau before further decline.
January 30, 2022 - Il a un petit côté Châteauneuf classique dans ce millésime, enfin à l'aveugle j'aurais été sur cette appellation. Nez encore très fruité, sur les épices et les herbes, la chaleur frappe un peu en bouche avec un côté capiteux. Les tanins sont fondus, ça coule et c'est tout à fait prêt à boire, mais on aimerait un peu plus de fraîcheur. 91